Within E-Commerce, Email Marketing Is Not Dead

One of the metrics I analyze to determine if email marketing is truly "dead" is the "percentage of demand sourced from email marketing" metric.

Simply put, this metric represents the percentage of demand, at each order in the life stage, that is attributed to email marketing.  Most often, the data looks something like this:

• 1st Order = 3%.
• 2nd Order = 22%.
• 3rd Order = 29%.
• 4th-5th Order = 31%.
• 6th-10th Order = 32%.
• 11th+ Order = 32%.

Yes, this is what I typically observe.  This tells us that best customers like email marketing the best.  We learn that email marketing is not the preferred channel for acquiring customers, but it is a channel embraced by retained buyers.

Run this analysis, and then run this analysis in a this year / last year comparison.  If the percentages are holding steady, then email marketing is most certainly not dead.

Coming Very Soon:  Hillstrom's Email Marketing Excellence!